OPEN: I get a daily devotion from a website called “heartlight.org”
Back in August, I read the following story by Patrick Odum. Apparently, in New Hampshire, a man named Josh Muszynski stopped at a gas station and bought a pack of cigarettes with his debit card. A few hours later he was online checking his bank account and found that this particular pack of cigarettes set him back:
$23,148,855,308,184,500.00.
That’s 23 quadrillion, 148 trillion, 855 billion, 308 million, 184 thousand, 500 dollars.
To put that in perspective: if you took ALL the money from ALL the countries in the United Nations, you still wouldn’t have enough money to buy that single pack of cigarettes.
Needless to say, Josh immediately called his bank and managed to clear things up. Not only did his bank correct the error, they also removed the $15 overdraft fee they charged him.
(Patrick D. Odum, Heartlight.org 8/11/09)
APPLY: The point is: if this man had actually owed that much money there was no way he (or anyone else on face of earth) could ever pay it back.
Now that brings us to the parable Jesus tells His disciples: There was a man who owed a king 10,000 talents… and he couldn’t repay it. A single talent was equal to approximately one year’s pay. Thus it would take a person 10,000 years to pay for that man’s debt.
To put it in financial terms: if someone were to make $50,000 a year one talent would equal $50,000, and 10,000 talents would then be worth at least $5 billion.
That’s more money than most people around here make. And in fact… that was the point of Jesus’ parable.
He starts the parable by explaining that He’s talking about the “Kingdom of Heaven” (vs. 23). That term (“Kingdom of heaven”) is used exclusively in the Gospel of Matthew and is a phrase used to describe the coming Church which began on Pentecost – fifty days after Jesus had been crucified on the cross.
Jesus died and rose from the dead to set up the church, and you and I became part of the church because we received the free gift of salvation when we believed in Jesus, repented of our sins, confessed Jesus as our Lord, and were baptized for the forgiveness of our sin. And all this came at the price of Christ’s death on the cross.
The price Jesus paid to obtain our salvation goes waaaay beyond anything we could ever do to repay Him. Jesus died on the cross so our DEBT of sin could be forgiven.
Or as Romans 6:23 puts it “… the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Now, in the first part of our parable this morning, Jesus explains that the King had pity on this man and forgave him his entire debt. In the same way, when we became Christians, God forgave us our entire debt. ALL of our sins were removed as far as EAST from WEST and buried in depth of sea. They don’t exist any more. (praise God).
That sets the stage for the 2nd part of Jesus’ parable.
This man who was forgiven his massive debt starts home – rejoicing every step of the way.
That is, until he encounters a man who owes HIM a debt of 100 denarii.
Just like in the part of the story where the 1st man begged for mercy from the king, so also, this 2nd man pleads for mercy when he’s faced with prison.
The difference between the 2 stories - this 2nd man was NOT forgiven.
The 1st man who’d received mercy (in spite of his great debt) refused to give same mercy to the man who owed him.
Now, why is Jesus telling this parable?
He’s telling the parable because Peter had just asked Jesus how many times he should forgive someone who’d sinned against him. Jesus gives Him a mathematical response (77 times in the NIV, whereas the KJV tells us 7 * 70). But then Jesus drives home the lesson with this parable.
Essentially Jesus is telling Peter that, WHEN the Kingdom of Heaven (Church) was established, God would forgive each of us a huge debt we could never repay - all sins we’ve ever committed would be completely forgiven.
AND the point of the parable is – since GOD has forgiven us our great debt of sin - He now expect us to forgive sins others commit against us.
In fact, He did more than expected it – He demanded it.
The last words of the parable are almost chilling:
“In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. ‘This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.’" Matthew 18:34-35
It’s a repeated theme throughout Scripture: God expects us to forgive others their sins against us.
* Ephesians 4:32 says: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
* Colossians 3:13 declares: “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
* And in Mark 11:25 Jesus said: “…when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."
Its even part of the “Lord’s Prayer”: (REPEAT IT WITH ME)
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name
Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts (HOW?)
as we forgive our debtors.”
And Jesus ends the “Lord’s Prayer” with these words:
“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father WILL NOT forgive your sins.” (Matthew.6:12-15)
That’s pretty scary!
But why should God be so insistent about this? Why be so harsh?
1st because when we don’t forgive, we hurt ourselves - not the people we're furious with.
Dale Carnegie observed: “When we hate our enemies we give them power over us - power over our sleep, our appetites, our happiness.”
And it even gets worse than that.
According to recent research – when we don’t forgive others we hurt ourselves physically.
o As we relive how people have hurt us we release adrenaline and cortisol into our bloodstream.
o An accompanying sugar release revs up muscles,
o and clotting factors surge in the blood.
All this works to wear down the brain,
and leads to cell atrophy and memory loss.
It also raises blood pressure and blood sugar,
and hardens our arteries and increases heart disease.
• By contrast, in one study where the subjects took “forgiveness training”
o mental distress dropped by about 40%,
o and they saw a 35% dip in headaches, back pain and insomnia.
(Lisa Collier Cool - Reader’s Digest, May 2004)
Unforgiveness hurts us physically.
But it also hurts us spiritually.
ILLUS: In one church I served, there was a woman there who seemed a model Christian. She was a great mother and a loving wife and always seemed cheerful… that is – until a man (who was part of the church) was convicted of child molestation. She became angry when he came down in front of the church and asked forgiveness.
Later – when I baptized another convicted child molester - she blew up in church and screamed at me as she marched out of the sanctuary.
Can anybody guess why she may have been so angry?
I don’t know for sure, but I’ve got a pretty good guess: somebody had molested her as a child.
And not only did she hate her molester, she hated every other man who molested children. Hers was not a feeling of disgust and displeasure… it was pure unforgiving hatred.
Now – you can’t blame her for her anger. What that man did to her as a child was enough to make anyone furious. But her anger wasn’t hurting the man who’d offended her. It was hurting her. It was imprisoning her in a cage of hatred… and only she held the key to the lock.
Ephesians 5:26-27 has something interesting to say about this.
“‘In your anger do not sin’: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.”
When we allow ourselves to remain bitter and unforgiving toward others Satan has us. He has a foothold in our lives. He has the tool he needs to enslave us.
But Jesus came to set us free from Satan’s bondage - the bondage to sin and bondage to the emotions that would drag us down. But if we don’t want that freedom, if we refuse to unlock the emotional cage that holds us captive… God cannot help us.
It’s not that God won’t help us, or that He doesn’t want to help us… He just can’t, because only we hold the key to unlock that cell door.
Now there are people who’ll say:
“Yeah, I’d forgive (so and so) but they never asked for forgiveness so I don’t have to.”
That’s sound reasonable doesn’t it?
Yeah… except it’s not true.
Jesus said “…when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." Mark 11:25
You’re just standing around praying and the person who’s offended you is not even close by. It’s just you and God. But even though they’re not anywhere close you still have to do forgive them so that God can forgive you.
It’s the marching orders of the Kingdom. In Matthew 18:15 Jesus says "If your brother sins against you, GO and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.”
Why does Jesus say I should GO to my brother who’s sinned against me?
TO WIN HIM back as your brother.
Now – if they don’t want to be won back - that’s no longer your problem.
But God expects us to be missionaries to win those who’ve hurt us, back to His kingdom. He wants us to make forgiveness and love hallmarks of His kingdom. It’s His Kingdom – not mine/ not yours… we are stewards of HIS Kingdom.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus declared “I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven...” Matthew 5:44-45a
When we learn to forgive others who’ve hurt us (our enemies) we become like our Father. God asks us to actively seek to forgive those who’ve hurt us so we can become like HIM.
Now, Jesus understands how hard this is for us. In fact, He describes the sins others have committed against us as a debt. In this case He compares it to a debt of 100 denarii.
In the footnote of my Bible, a commentator said this was worth only a few dollars. Now, I don’t know who that commentator was… but he was wrong.
A denarius was equal to a day’s pay. If you were to work 8 hours a day and were paid $10 an hour, a 100 denarii would equal $8000. I don’t know about you, but $8000 seems like quite a lot of money to me. If you wrote me a check for $8000… I would be deeply appreciative. I could use that much money (couldn’t you?). $8000 is REAL money – it is NOT pocket change.
And what Jesus is saying is: when people hurt us… that’s real. It hurts, it’s painful, they’ve sinned against us and they’ve done something to us that they had no right to do!!!
Just like when we sinned against God.
Except we’ve sinned a whole lot more against Him than others could ever sin against us. And God says: “I forgave you… so go and do likewise… and I will reward you.”
So, how do I know if I’ve forgiven those who’ve sinned against me?
(Take notes, this is good stuff)
1st – do I want them punished?
That’s what the man in the parable wanted to do. He threw the debtor into prison. He wanted the man to suffer for what he owed him.
In the same way, if I haven’t forgiven someone I want them punished.
Now, be aware, if someone sins against you and they do not repent… they will be punished. In 2 Thessalonians 1:6 we’re told “God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you.” So you don’t have to punish those who’ve hurt you. God will do that for you.
BUT, if we rejoice in their punishment, if we find joy in their suffering, God will not be pleased.
Proverbs 24:17-18 says “Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice, or the LORD will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from him.”
God will punish those who’ve hurt you so that they’ll repent – not so you’ll be able to form a cheering section for their total annihilation.
2nd – do you expect “repayment” of their debt?
In Jesus’ parable, the unforgiving man had the other fellow “thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.”
When people sin against us, we often use debt statements to describe our feelings:
• They “owe” me
• I’m going to get “even” with them
These are “debt statements”. And we often think these folks owe us
• an apology
• or some other form of satisfaction.
And if THEY don’t give it to us that apology/satisfaction we’ll be more than happy to arrange our own "payment schedule" for their debt. We’ll shut them off socially/ financially/ spiritually.
We’ll have nothing more to do with them… because they are scum and we are righteous.
But Jesus said: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven...” Matthew 5:44-45a
3rd – Have you kept “a list” of what they’ve done to you?
The unforgiving man in the parable knew EXACTLY how much the other man owed him. He kept a ledger. He kept a record. He knew what the other man’s debt was.
Jesus said we should LOVE our enemies. How do I do that?
Proverbs 10:12 “… love covers over all wrongs.”
1 Peter 4:8 “… love covers over a multitude of sins.”
1 Corinthians 13:5 Love “…keeps no record of wrongs.”
You can’t obey Jesus and still keep a record of the wrongs they’ve done you.
CLOSE: During WWII, the Nazis sent 1000s of people to concentration camps. One of those people was named Corrie Ten Boom. Her parents died in the camps, and she and her sister endured numerous indignities and humiliations at the hands of their captors.
But when the war was over, and she was freed, she found she was still imprisoned by her hatred of those who had hurt her and her family. After much tears and prayer… she finally succeeded. She was so successful that she began to speak at churches all across Europe trying to help others accomplish the same objective.
Over and over again, she would forgive one person, then another of what they’d done to her. But there was one individual who she had great difficulty in forgiving. In fact, she spent several sleepless nights struggling with her memories of this man. So she went to speak to her preacher.
He thought about it for a few moments and then pointed to the bell rope hanging in the foyer.
“Do you see that bell rope?” he asked. “Every Sunday, the sexton pulls on the rope and rings that bell – announcing to the community that it is time for worship. As he pulls the rope, the bell rings ‘ding’, and ‘dong’, ding and dong. Eventually he lets go of the bell rope… but the bell still swings and rings ding, and dong, slower and slower until at last it stops ringing.”
“I believe the same thing is true of forgiveness. When we forgive, we take our hand off the rope. But if we've been tugging at our grievances for a long time, we mustn't be surprised if the old angry thoughts keep coming for a while. They're just the ding dongs of the old bell slowing down.'
But the key thing is this: you’ve got to let go of the bell rope.
You’ve got quit tugging at your grievances over and over again… or you’ll never forgive.
So, have you let go of the bell rope?
Or is there someone you have never forgiven of past sins?
Is there someone who – if you met them in the grocery store – you’d walk away from because their very presence makes you angry?
Is there someone who – if they sought help from you or from the church – you’d get upset because these people don’t deserve to be helped?
Is there someone who – just hearing their name sets your teeth on edge?
Then you need to let go of the bell rope.
You need to forgive them…
… so that Satan doesn’t get a foothold in your life
… so that God can forgive you
… so that God can fully bless you and reward you for your faithfulness and obedience.
